1 Introduction
The Ministry for the Environment has set up the Warm Homes project to examine ways to encourage New Zealand households to move to cleaner heating sources and increase household energy efficiency, with the overall aim of encouraging warmer, healthier homes.
EnergyConsult Pty Ltd and Strategic Energy Ltd have been contracted to provide information on different home-heating options and their costs and benefits through:
- a review of current literature on home heating
- development of an Excel model to be used as the framework for evaluating different heating sources
- a rating of home heating types by specified criteria
- case studies based on different areas of New Zealand, different household types and a range of heating patterns.
The Phase 1 report presented the results of the review of current literature on home heating. This Phase 2 report presents:
- the methodology used to develop the Excel model for evaluating and rating different heating sources
- a description of how the Excel model functions and how to use it
- the case studies, based on different areas of New Zealand, different household types and a range of heating patterns
- implications of the Excel model and case studies.
The focus is on the technical and financial aspects of home heating; social studies of heating choice and incentives for behaviour change are to be incorporated in a separately commissioned report on social drivers.
In this report, fuel poverty [A household is in fuel poverty if, in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime it would be required to spend more than 10% of its income on all household fuel use (DEFRA, 2001The UK Fuel Poverty Strategy. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: London).] is only considered in the context of the relative operating costs of the various heating and fuel options that are evaluated. A heater with a high operating cost per unit of heat delivered into the room will contribute more to fuel poverty than a more economical heating option.
Project process and aims
This second phase of the Warm Homes options study involved:
- developing a methodology for rating home heating appliances on their capability to satisfy a householder's heating requirements, which will vary according to climate, housing type, lifestyle and many other variables
- developing an Excel model that could be used to evaluate different heating sources and rating the heating sources according to a variety of criteria
- using the Excel model to develop a series of case studies that would illustrate the preferred heating sources in a variety of household circumstances
- developing recommendations concerning how the Excel heating source rating model might be further developed so it could be used directly by the public.
